For some, ironing is one of those tasks which encourages procrastination. One of the primary reasons for such procrastination is the hassle involved with dragging a collapsible ironing board out of a closet or from behind a door. To say the least, un-collapsing the board and setting it up on its flimsy legs is an awkward and not overly enlightening experience. In use, the flimsy legs may provide some vertical stability to the ironing surface but leaves much to be desired in the way of providing horizontal stability for countering sidewise thrusts which are an inherent part of the ironing process.
After completion of the ironing duties, a user is usually presented with another challenge: collapsing the ironing board without pinching or scraping hands and fingers, and leaning the board somewhere without it falling and scraping paint and wallpaper on the walls and woodwork, or carefully folding the board into a wall cabinet at the risk of the board slipping and falling on the user. In order to avoid the unwelcome scrapes and pinches and avoid the un-collapsing and collapsing hassle, those who have extra floor space, and many who don't, may choose to leave the ironing board perpetually set up and tolerate the unsightly appearance of an erected ironing board.
Several attempts have been made to avoid some of the difficulties encountered with collapsible ironing boards. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,556, issued Nov. 6, 1984, to Kermit H. Wilson et al., discloses an "Adjustable Folding Ironing Board" wherein a first piece of a two-piece ironing board is pivoted about a horizontal axis of a wall cabinet, and the other piece is pivotable with respect to the first piece about a vertical axis of a turning portion. The ironing surface can be set at two different working heights. The Wilson et al. ironing board retains some of the undesirable features of the ordinary board in that each time the board is uncollapsed from, and re-collapsed into, the wall cabinet, the latches must be manipulated. Further, the Wilson et al. ironing board projects only at right angles from the wall cabinet and the ironing surface is confined to pivoting about the aforementioned vertical axis of the turning portion.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,681, issued Feb. 6, 1991, to Clyde B. Parnell, discloses a "Built-In Ironing Center" wherein a first piece of a two-piece ironing board is pivoted about three horizontal axes of a wall cabinet, and the two-piece ironing board is further pivotable with respect to a plate about a vertical axis of a lazy-susan type support. The ironing surface can be set at three different elevations by use of two rods in cooperation with seven pairs of slots. Again, the Parnell ironing board retains some of the undesirable features of the ordinary board in that each time the board is uncollapsed from the wall cabinet, the rods must be latched in the appropriate slots, and each time the board is collapsed for storage in the wall cabinet, the rods must be unlatched from those slots. And, again, the support of the Parnell ironing board projects only at right angles from the wall cabinet and the ironing surface is confined to pivoting about the aforementioned vertical axis.
Another feature of most of the prior art ironing board devices is the angularly downwardly depending braces that are needed to provide acceptable stability to counter the thrusting moments created during the ironing process. Such braces are an invitation to danger for the fingers of toddlers who want to be near, but who may be beneath an ironing board out of sight of, an ironing parent.
Another feature of some of the prior art ironing board devices involves closing a doorway or blocking a passageway to use the devices.
What is needed is an ironing board that is latchless, both during preparation for use and during preparation for storage, that is not confined to pivoting about a single vertical axis, that does not have angularly downwardly depending supporting braces, that does not block a doorway or other passageway, and which is available in kit form for installation in an existing base cabinet.